2012 Indian Grand Prix review

Sebastian Vettel edged away from Fernando Alonso in the drivers’ championship after scoring his fourth consecutive win of 2012.

Vettel had little to worry about as he led every lap for the second year in a row at the Buddh International Circuit.

Alonso limited the damage has best he could, rising to second place during the race, but was unable to keep Vettel from his fifth win of the year.

Alonso takes on the McLarens

Red Bull preserved the advantage of their front-row lockout at the start as their rivals furiously disputed third place. The McLaren drivers went side-by-side down the long straight as Alonso appeared alongside them heading to turn four.

Lewis Hamilton lost out to the Ferrari despite diving back down the inside of Alonso at turn four. He ran wide, allowing Alonso to claim the position back.

While the Red Bulls made good their escape Button temporarily held third place. But he was soon passed by Alonso and Hamilton, who simply out-gunned him on straight line speed in the DRS zone.

Already up to third, Alonso began a race-long pursuit of Mark Webber. The gap between the pair of them crept up for most of the first stint, reaching over four seconds.

Problems for Perez

Most drivers were aiming to get through the race on a single pit stop. Surprisingly, Sergio Perez was the first to hit trouble with his tyres and was passed by Nico Hulkenberg in the DRS zone.

Perez made an early pit stop on lap 14 and dropped down the running order. He then picked up a puncture while passing Daniel Ricciardo, and incurred car damage which forced an early retirement.

Kimi Raikkonen spent a frustrating stint stuck behind Massa, his Lotus’s poor straight-line speed leaving him unable to launch an attack even when Massa made an error late in the first stint.

That prompted Lotus to try to use the ‘undercut’ to get Raikkonen ahead. On lap 27 he was told to pit if Massa didn’t – the Ferrari stayed out, so the Lotus came in.

After Massa made his pit stop the pair were side-by-side heading to turn three – and then appeared to compete over who would be the last to reach the DRS activation line. Massa won the unusual contest, and although he followed Raikkonen onto the straight he was easily able to activate his DRS and re-pass the Lotus.

The other Lotus of Grosjean had started on the hard tyres. He briefly ran as high as fifth before being passed by Hamilton after the McLaren driver’s pit stop. Following his late change to softs Grosjean gained on Hulkenberg. But faced the same problem as Raikkonen had with Massa – he was simply unable to get on terms with the Force India on the straight.

KERS problem costs Webber second

The single round of pit stops produced no change in the running order at the front, though Alonso gained on Webber and was briefly able to put him under pressure in the DRS zone before dropping back.

Hamilton remained fourth after an impressively slick McLaren pit stop which included changing all four wheels plus Hamilton’s defective steering wheel with no loss of position, or much in the way of time.

Back on the track, Hamilton edged closer to the Webber-Alonso battle for second. That dispute was resolved when Webber suffered a KERS glitch, allowing Alonso to pass him easily in the DRS zone.

Hamilton produced a series of quick laps as he closed on Webber’s ailing RB8. But he only got within DRS range in the final two laps, which proved too little too late.

There was further cause for concern on the Red Bull pit wall as sparks began to appear from beneath the front of Vettel’s car. The problem was immediately relayed to Alonso, who redoubled his efforts to reduce Vettel’s 11-second lead.

The Ferrari driver had hit down to under ten seconds when he went off at turn 14. The tarmac run-off meant he only lost a second to Vettel, but it finished off any hopes he had of catching the only driver left in front of him, and the one he most wanted to pass.

Schumacher’s spoiled race

Button had a quiet run to fifth while Massa held off Raikkonen for sixth despite running low on fuel – he pulled to a stop shortly after crossing the start/finish line.

Hulkenberg did the same after finishing eighth, though he was unsure why the team had told him to stop. Grosjean finished on his tail in ninth and Bruno Senna claimed the final point after a battling drive, passing Nico Rosberg and Pastor Maldonado on the way.

Maldonado joined Perez in spinning off with a puncture, his caused by contact with Kamui Kobayashi. In all, three drivers suffered the same fate as Michael Schumacher picked up a puncture from Jean-Eric Vergne on lap one.

The delay cost Schumacher almost a full lap and he found himself being lapped by the leaders within minutes of the start. Hamilton was one of several drivers who complained about how slowly Schumacher responded to the blue flags, which the stewards will look into after the race.

Schumacher pulled in with five laps to go. The other Mercedes of Rosberg finished outside the points in 11th, followed by an unhappy Paul di Resta who had struggled with drag on his car early in the race.

Toro Rosso’s run of points scores came to an end as Ricciardo and Vergne were 13th and 15th, separated by Kobayashi. Maldonado’s puncture left him 16th followed by the Caterhams and Marussias.

Narain Karthikeyan was the last running driver in his home race after Pedro de la Rosa crashed out with another HRT brake failure.

Vettel’s fourth consecutive victory means his lead in the championship has increased to 13 points. With three races to go and 75 points left to be won he is far from safe yet, and Alonso knows that if Ferrari can produce some more pace from his car in the final races he is still in with a chance of winning this championship.

171 comments on Vettel wins in India but Alonso limits the damage

Imagine this race with refuelling and bridgestone tyres and without DRS. 2 or 3 good non DRS passes. Hamilton pushing all the way to the end. Someone on the pit wall messing up the strategy and someone acting brilliantly. Result : Great race.. Poor era of F1.

Refuelling was pants. At least they’re racing another guy on the track now, not someone 30 secs up the road who may or may not come out of the pits ahead of them. And the tyres today were more like Bridgestones. But I agree DRS didn’t help today.

My belief is that a ‘right philosophy’ is always3 important – to F1 and everything else – since a dimwitted raceday feature like DRS is nothing more than a quickfix gimmick.

By outlawing refuelling, drivers are more ‘in sync’ with their immediate competitor, somethng that promotes racing, and if it has not been evident without DRS, it’s because issues like dirty air, turbulence, etc., have actually stifled most genuine overtaking attempts.

Look at what the ban on traction control did – it brought out the weakness in drivers like Massa, and such pro-racing rules will ensure the coming of age of talent.

I dont agree with many points. You should recall the reason of introduction of refuelling. It was introduced to attack all the way to the end. My problem with managing tyres is that drivers should be allowed to show their true potential i.e attack every lap. They cant do it now. Everyone wants show and they think by introducing DRS, KERS and non-durable they are helping the cause. Racing is more artifcial now. Who remembers who made a superb overtake because no one finds them so special and there are so many. Why we remember Heikkeinen passing Schumacher in SPA and Raikkonen passing Gincarlo in Suzuka. Because they were not down to DRS or tyres. They were genuine. down to the driver. I will take a boring race but genuine over an artificial but interesting race because F1 is not a show. It was an idea of competition between engineering and drivers of different teams. I never felt bored in Schumi era because drivers were allowed to show the true potential of their cars and how quick they can be pumping in consecutive fastest laps. In 2006 Spanish GP, it was joy to see Alonso setting 10th consecutive fastest lap and i miss those days when we used to predict the fuel level of different cars and strategy calls. Competition was more fierce on track at that time and top teams were more close over the course of season.

As I remember it, Bernie said re-fuelling would give F1 more to be interested in and more for press to report. Never heard anything about allowing the cars to attack all race, if anyone said it they were dead-wrong, however longer wearing tyres would help achieve that in todays rules as can be seen by comparing Alonso in Korea with Alonso in India.Otherwise I mostly agree with you @f1rollout, and @bascb.

I would love to see the championship go right down to the last race in Brazil, but I fear that if Vettel’s run of dominance continues, only a mechanical failure can hold him back from the coronation of triple world champ (even though he almost had a mech. failure with the floor in India). Because as stunningly as Alonso drove, i dont think it’s enough to beat a Newey car in the hands of a driver of the calibre of Vettel.

I’m really torn, because i would love to see Alonso win it, just because of how hard he has worked, and how many points he has scored for Ferrari when, early in the season, they weren’t in the position to get huge hauls of points. And it has really proved that he is the best all round driver in Formula 1.

But at the same time, i would like to see Vettel win it again just for the history books, of becoming 3x Champion.

@tophercheese21 I know exactly what you mean! Sometimes I just wish Alonso didn’t perform so well this year, and performed well next year instead… There’s something about seeing history in the making, like only the third guy to get 3 crowns in a row, that has a very sexy allure.

Yep. Webber is one of the very best drivers in the world and he’ll finish the championship behind someone from another team for the third time running.

Red Bull has got the best car on the grid, but with the likes of Alonso and Hamilton in not much slower cars, you need someone to take full advantage of it. Vettel’s been doing just that in the last 3 seasons.

@enigma IMO Webber can be somewhat underrated. Few people remember his near-poles in 03 and 04, or that he beat Alonso in F3000. And my memory is fuzzy, but didn’t he thrash Rosberg in Monaco 06, before he retired from the race? Rosberg is rated very highly – so why not Mark?

I don’t think he’s on HAM/VET/ALO level, but I think hed give Button/Rosberg/08 Massa a run for their money.

@raymondu999 Yep – even if Vettel is on it the entire weekend and dominates it, Webber usually still gets within a tenth in qualifying and doesn’t get left behind in the race (except for 2011, but that’s another story).

Webber is Under Rated! I think its clear the top 3 in F1 are Alonso/Hamilton/Vettel but on his day Webber is pretty unbeatable, a bit like Button when the car is exactly how he needs it. But that’s what seperates The top 3 form the Rest, they don’t need the car to be perfect to Win.

Webber will end his career with a decent total of wins but over a season he can’t perform as consitently as Vettel even though for the last 3 years he’s had the best car the majority of the time. I also find it puzzling how all the KERS problems Red Bull have only ever seem to affect Webber….bad luck? or down to the way he drives the car perhaps? Interesting 1.

Similar I guess to Ferrari when Schumacher & Barrichello were there. 9 times out of 10 any mechanical problem happened on Rubens Car.

I’m not discrediting the efforts of the 2 Red Bull drivers Seb & Mark they obtained their victory on track & they fought hard for it but their team is expert in cheating & the funny thing that if they got caught & they were BTW the rules will be changed in the next race without penalizing them remember the hole,engine mapping;ride height………………

@raymondu999
I agree.
I mean, it’s a very important moment of the championship and everyone wants Alonso to win it in Italy. For example, yesterday they thought that Red Bull told Webber not to complete his last lap in quali, because Vettel was on pole. They even saw the mistake he made on T3, but they didn’t care.

So, yeah, italian journalists are probably making up things, but I thought it was worth saying.

While I was in the Korea paddock actually, I had a similar experience. There was a member of the press, though I’m not sure if he was Spanish or Italian, that actually asked Kimi something along the lines of “Do you have any negative feelings towards Alonso? Why did you give him a puncture on purpose? Have you apologised to him for doing that?”

I wanted to throttle the guy on the spot. Needless to say Kimi frowned, shook his head, and pushed the guy out of his way, and just walked off.

one thing that perhaps should be noted is, what ever the reason, cause, broken part, missing bolt etc that made the car drag on the ground, he then went onto set his fastest lap of the race at that stage with it.

@Q85 @catracho504
That thing was sparking everytime he opened the DRS – because then he was quicker in a straight line, and the front then had a lot more downforce (because he was going quicker with the same front wing setting) which was pushing the front further down. Whenever Vettel didn’t deploy DRS everything was fine, and he was only using DRS that one time.

I guess they set the ride heights up very marginal for qualifying, and maybe only had 1-2mm of clearance in qualifying (remember that the car becomes 1-2mm lower in the race anyways thanks to fuel)

@raymondu999
Fair enough… ItÂ´s just that your whole “the car becomes 1-2mm lower with fuel” theory didnÂ´t happen at the beginning when it was fully fueled… it happened near the end when he had burnt most of it…. And he did use DRS while lapping Michael and it didnÂ´t happen there either. Webber even had to give Vettel a push so in MHO, VettelÂ´s RB8 was light on fuel… Anyways, it wouldnÂ´t be the first time we see something weird happen with the RB suspension… remember WebberÂ´s rear suspension failure?
just saying….

I’d expect a decent conspiracy theorist to find a wholly unbelievable theory backed by all sorts of evidence! You know RB had Baumgartner jump only to hide some of the evidence of not having visited the moon, don’t you :-)

The thing in the twitter photo looks to me like a temperature probe or a non latching switch, to the right under his thumb you can almost make out what looks like 3 small wires, the like you get in phone cables (orange/white, blue/white etc). thats what I would say if someone showed that photo without any knowledge of where it came from or where its going.

Vettel’s come on very strongly towards the end of the season yet again: it is the first time he has won 4 races in a row in one season and what a time to do it! In the last 4 races he has out-scored Alonso by 52 points: more than double what Alonso has scored in those 4 races.

Ferrari desperately need to make up some ground on Red Bull or the driver’s and constructors championships could be sealed by Vettel before the end of the season.

This summarises why Vettel just isn’t as popular as his abilities and statistics suggest. Many of his victories involve starting at the front and leading the entire race. Say what you like about the skills this requires, but the fact is that it’s just not interesting racing. Hamilton and Alonso, for example, always guarantee on track action, overtaking etc. It’s easy to see why liking Vettel is difficult because cheering for him means cheering for a dull race, much of the time.

Remember, when Hamilton earned his reputation? Not when he won the title, but when he was showing tenacity and commitment and a dog of a car McLaren in 2009

And Vettel earned his reputation by similarly punching way above his weight in a lower midfield car in 2008. The RB8 isn’t a cheat car… it hasn’t even been the fastest for most of this season, yet here he is, leading the way, having fought hard for position earlier in the season.

@vettel1, hello Max, did you notice at the start how much Webber had to slow when Seb cut across in front of him, lucky for him it was Webber, had it been another driver Seb might have found himself back with Schumacher.

@raymondu999, my point exactly. Webber actually got the better start for once and was under no obligation (except to the team) to back of and allow Vettel an easy lead into the first cnr. Had Alonso been in Vettels place I am sure they would have wanted Webber to fight all the way even if wheels banged and front wings were deranged.

@hohum To be honest I think since the Korean weekend Webber was always going to do that. He will obviously push, but he won’t do it at Vettel’s expense.

The start is always a touchy one because to be honest they wouldn’t ever do a team shuffle or anything fancy at the start – because there’s the chance that it would lose the team more positions in the long run.

My point was, I think given that it was Webber, Seb knew that he could be a little bit more aggressive in signalling “hey mate, I’ve got this. As you were.”

@hohum – I think that was more due to the fact that the team would not at all like it if Webber pit Vettel out of the race; they don’t want a repeat of Turkey 2010. Vettel knew this so he knew he could defend vigorously against him.

I barely even look at the standings (both Drivers & Constructors) nowadays, with the points system, the complexity it brings to do mental calculation is just incredulous, I look towards the quality of the racing now.

With the almost impervious form & package Vettel has got underneath him, Alonso & Hamilton being exactly 13 & 75 points respectively with three races, with no signs of a convincing update from either McLaren or Ferrari a DNF from Vettel is what is desperately needed to keep the title battle alive it must be said.

@hohum what good would that do? They’d STILL be the only two contenders. Here’s a stat: Vettel and Alonso could take a holiday next race, and still knock Raikkonen, Hamilton and Webber out of title contention.

Nice read but a below average race overall. No overtaking except in the DRS zone tells you all you need to know about these new circuits.

I wish India, Abu Dhabi and Korea would all alternate to save us the pain of watching the dull, soulless atmosphere they provide, plus they all look the fricking same. Not to mention there were less people watching the race than there is at a under-7s game of football.

And Bernie wants to remove move European races. I’m all for a more global championship but if we end up removing the likes of Spa and Monza for more Tilke designed snoozefests than that would be sad. I don’t understand why the FIA don’t hire others to design circuits as the effect of the Tilke ones are pretty obvious.

We could do with some sort of ‘Trust’ which preserves the classic tracks place on the calendar!

In all honesty though, I don’t think the two races we’ve seen at India do justice to the track. If this race had been with the earlier flyaway races this year when we were having different winners (and if we had no DRS) then there’s a chance it’d be a different story.

yes mate i agree the track is impressive,but this time of year the teams already had a good measure of tyres so teams are more conservative with the strategy,as the element of unpredictability is almost gone which was there at the start of the season when every team is trying unveil the mystery of pirelli, the other factor is red bull domination ,if vettel pull up a lead of 2-3 sec after first few laps then he control the race and win it from there.Last four races are almost the flash back of last season .I am afraid rest of the season ends up in this fashion which ever track it was…sad but true

The tyres certainly held up too well this time. Just compare this race to the first half of the year: Kimi was stuck behind Massa for the whole race. In the opening races, he would’ve slipped by easily when Felipe’s tyres would’ve gone off after 15 or 20 laps. Now, if you don’t have the straight line speed, you just can’t overtake.

Assuming of course that Massa’s tyres would have given up before Kimi’s. And given that Kimi, was following Massa so closely, I find it unlikely that that would’ve been the case. Anyways, far too much speculation for my liking. Massa drove a good race under constant pressure while needing to save fuel.

Agreed, I was surprised that Ferrari were the only team to follow the Toro Rosso/Korea example of going for long 7th. gear, not even STR themselves learned from their (relative) success.
For Ferrari this tactic is a tradition that goes back to the wing-less era when Ferraris V12s were often the most powerful engine.

On all the new tracks that have been introduced since 2008, Vettel has either finished 1st or not finished that race at all: Abu Dhabi – 1st, 1st, retired, Korea – retired, 1st, India – 1st, 1st.
So, Vettel will either win at Austin or retire!

Lets say 2009; then there is another statistic to consider: he has won the inaugural races twice and the other time he retired from the lead. So he will probably be leading based on that, but will his car fail him? I’m hoping not!

I have some sympathy for Tilke; he does have many restrictions due to safety and the land he is given is usually just reclaimed swamp or some other area the government are happy to give away. Yes though he could make certain tracks a lot more interesting than they are, such as Abu Dhabi (which had its own bloody island constructed specifically for the race with a practically unlimited budget; they could’ve made it absolutely epic)! India isn’t bad though, the drivers like it and I think it’s an okay track, just that it’s had two boring races in it’s early years sadly due to RBR dominance.

excellent point regarding the restrictions the track designers have to deal with. I am beginning to wonder if the reason only Tilke does F1 tracks is more because no one else wants to deal with all the restrictions and make mediocre tracks. Only Tilke is willing to sell out.

My feelings exactly!! Maybe if he wouldnÂ´t of had that runoff and if maybe he would of had another 10 laps… maybe, just maybe he would have nailed Vettel as well…
ItÂ´s just amazing how he can extract 100% out of the car and just add another 20% on sheer abilities!

Doubtful, seeing as Alonso was punishing his tyres just to try and get closer to Vettel. That’s the reason why he went off in the first place.
And extracting 100% and adding 20% above the car’s actual capabilities? Right….

IÂ´m sorry sir but, even a Blind man could “see” that…. I guess my comment was not liked by you but in honesty, we havenÂ´t seen Vettel do similar perormances with an inferior car, thus, that is why most people are saying this about Fernando. Common man… give credit where creit is due…
When has Vettel given such performances? Oh thatÂ´s right… he hasnÂ´t, most of the time he is in front with clean air (at least the 2011 season and this last 4 races…) and with no added pressure of having to pass anybody…

Funny how you talk about giving credit where credit is due and then say we’ve never seen Vettel do what Alonso did yesterday…

I guess you ‘forgot’ the Australian GP.. Oh wait, Vettel actually did more there.
Spa then? No Vettel was far more impressive there than Alonso was yesterday as well.

I guess Vettel’s performance in Singapore is best compared to Alonso yesterday. One O.K. pass at the start and a place gifted to him when someone else hit trouble. So apart from one easy DRS pass I’d say those two performances were pretty similar.

I’m sure you disagree but facts are facts. Just as it’s physically impossible to perform at 120%. Even a 100% is impossible. That would mean a perfect lap every lap of the race. I doubt even a computer would be able to do that.

@Kingshark Looking at the info at hand, that Ferrari was the equal of Red Bull (at least Mark Webber) in race pace today to be honest. KERS would give you 3 to 4 tenths, tops around India. 5 at a stretch. Mark Webber wasn’t even able to keep up with Alonso after his KERS failure, and he was only able to match (not catch) Alonso after his KERS came back to life

I could complain about the state of modern F1, but I’ll probably get told ‘why watch it then if you don’t like it?’ Ok, fair enough. I have no desire to watch the ‘United Arab Emirates’ Grand Prix or United States GP. My last race will be Brazil.

I think Newey vs Alonso is very good for the formula 1. They both can wins world championships, they have different skills…but without no doubt they are the best in what they do.

Someone may ask which are the most important Alonso’s skills or Newey’s skills?
The answer is easy Newey’s skills. Newey can beat Alonso’s skills. Alonso can’t beat Newey’s skills.
The battle from this two men will be very exciting through these 3 remain races. Without this two guys the formula 1 will lose 60%-70% of the interest. I’m hoping that in the future when this two guys will retired, another Alonso and another Newey will born.

Someone may ask what will happen if those two guys work for the same team?
Well something bad will happen in the hole Universe, we may have the second coldest era in the univers (the first happened 300 million years after the big bang) but this one will called the most BORING era…and may last for a very very long time…:)

So it’s important that this two guys never be teammates…because if that happens is all lost.

@fanser what’s to say that Alonso’s driving even suits a Newey car? For all we know Newey’s cars might be very quick but very difficult to drive. Look at Patrese. He couldn’t feel the car at all when he was at Williams.

Probably proves how McLaren are able to get things perfectly right but fail to achieve (Arguably the second half of 2009 did see RBR already as the car to beat). And it shows how Ross Brawn & Co. are the only ones to be able to build a team of people to consistently beat Newey!
Hm, that will be exactly what Mercedes would have been telling Lewis, right.

@raymondu999, sorry. Reading it back it almost looks like I deleted part of the text.

I meant to say that it shows how McLaren, still having Newey on board failed to use that to win a championship despite having fast cars, after the 2 times Mika won it.
They have been paying enormous attention to getting every detail right, but more often than not have been perfect at throwing away their chances by things getting out of control (engine, management, driver hiccups, pitstop gaffes, and not to forget a fair deal of controversy, etc.)